The Alex Chronicles:Girlfriends & Secrets

The Alex Chronicles:

Copyright © 2015 by Tracy Reed

All rights reserved.

This is a
work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either
the product of the author
’
s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance
to actual person, living or dead, business establishments, event or
locals is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews. Making or distributing electronic
copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could
subject the infringer to criminal and civil liability.

Cover Image

Kamil Macniak/shutterstock.com

[print]

ISBN-13: 978-0-9862933-5-1

ISBN-10: 0-9862933-5-0

Thank you to that group of friends who read
my first book which was the first draft of this story...Mommy,
Selma, Debra, Terryl and Yolanda. Your honest critiquing helped me
dig deeper and understand these characters.

This is the series that led me to my friend
Michelle Sutton. Her guidance and mentoring has been more valuable
then she will ever know.

My friend Rachele Turner, I miss your quiet
voice and honest observation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ALEX

CHLOE

TAYLOR

DIONNE

KENDELL

ALEX

EXCERPT: What My Friends Don't
Know

EXCERPT: Generational
Curse

EXCERPT: The Good Girl

TRACY'S OTHER BOOKS

Tracy is
a woman who loves God, Cute Guys and Fashion. Sometimes those last
two things fight for second place, when there
’
s a great designer sale.

She calls
herself a partial New Yorker due to the two and half years she
lived there. She refers to her books as Edgy Christian Fiction with
real characters in real life situations. Like her characters,
she
’
s a small business owner waiting on that
one cute guy, who loves God and understands her love of
fashion.

To learn more about Tracy and her books go
to:

www.readtracyreed.com

MY NAME IS ALEXANDRA SIMONE
Miller and I am a fashion addict. Isn’t that how
they make you introduce yourself at those addiction anonymous
support group meetings? At least that’s what I’ve heard. I tried
kicking the fashion habit, but it’s a little difficult when there
are so many talented dealers, I mean designers tempting me. I know
somewhere there has to be a support group for people like me. I
think it meets at Neiman's or Barneys. I heard a rumor that if
you’re really bad they sentence you to aversion therapy at
Bergdorf’s…I wish.

So the
last thing a person like me should do is own a boutique. Fashion is
a drug and not only am I a junkie, I
’
m also a dealer and the base of my operation is my
boutique,
“
Alex
Simone".

Alex
Simone is my baby. It
’
s
a place where women come to escape and fantasize. We encourage
women to try things on, because that usually leads to buying.
Shopping at one of my boutiques is like playing "dress up" in the
ultimate fantasy closet, complete with designer ready-to-wear and
vintage couture.

Not only
am I a fashion addict, I
’
m also a borderline workaholic. I say borderline, because I
do manage to eek out time to spend with my friends.

My
girlfriends are like family. People always ask how we met. I think
that
’
s the one thing we
haven
’
t been able to
agree on.

Let
’
s see.
Taylor is my cousin on my dad
’
s side. She and I have always been close.
She
’
s really more like
an older sister. I think we have shared secrets none of the other
girls know about. But there
’
s that one thing that happened in Paris. I think I
didn
’
t tell her because
I knew she would have been disappointed in me.

Anyway
…
she was
going to school in Atlanta and she said I
’
d like it. Not only because it was crawling with
good looking guys, but because it had a great liberal arts program.
To be honest, I needed to get out of the city. A dose of Southern
living was a welcome change. So I applied and got in.
That
’
s where I met
Chloe.

Chloe was
a typical rich girl on the verge of being cut off. School in the
south was the last straw. She and Taylor were roommates. I
don
’
t know who thought
it was a good idea to put them together. Then again, it was
probably for the best.

When I
went for my college tour, the two of them had me running around
town. I don
’
t think I
got more than twenty hours of sleep the entire week, but I had a
good time. These two had the hook up for everything.

When I
got there in the fall, a new dorm was open courtesy of
Chloe
’
s parents. The
rooms were all suites. A few strings were pulled and I was assigned
to Taylor and Chloe
’
s
suite. I was immediately accepted into their social circle. Heck,
they practically ran the social scene on campus. To this day, I
never knew how they managed to get hooked up with every club in
town, without getting busted.

The year after I got there, I met this girl
named Dionne in Humanities class. We started talking and it turned
out, she was from California. She kept saying I reminded her of her
roommate, Kendell. When I finally met Kendell, I was shocked at how
much we looked alike. We played a little game of Twenty Questions
and discovered the reason we looked so much alike was because we
were related.

Kendell
is my cousin on my mother
’
s side. Her father and my mother are half siblings. We
share our grandfather
’
s
eyes, smile, skin color and height. When I first saw her, I thought
I was looking at myself minus the upstairs endowment from my
grandmother. My mother and Kendell
’
s father have the same father. My Grandfather
Cyrus had a roaming eye along with some other things. He was
married to my Grandmother while he played house with
Kendell
’
s grandmother.
He fathered a total of nine children, my mother and her three
sisters, and Uncle Chester and his four brothers.

I think
we
’
ve managed to stay
friends as long as we have because we
’
re so different. It
’
s like we balance each other out.

Oh, yeah,
I was talking about secrets and being impulsive. Of my group,
I
’
m considered the
rational one. I don
’
t
see how I got that label. My friends say it
’
s because I
’
m a planner and would never do anything impulsive.
That
’
s just not true. I
do a lot of impulsive things, they just don
’
t know about them.

There was
one impulsive thing I was going to do, but circumstances prevented
it from happening. I
’
m
not using my planning habit as an excuse, but as a legitimate
reason why that impulsive event didn't take place. The impulsive
incident involved my fianc
é
, Jonathan.

Jonathan
and I had been together off and on for ten years. If you ask my
friends, they
’
d say more
off than on. And as much as I don
’
t want to agree with them, they
’
re right.

I met Jonathan in college when I returned
from my Paris internship to complete the second half of my senior
year. I was hesitant to get involved with him, because his best
friend and I had history. However, he won me over with his charm
and we started dating.

By the
time we graduated, he had proposed
…
the first time. Much too soon. We barely knew each
other. I moved back to Los Angeles. He followed me to California
and took a job in Los Angeles so we could work on our relationship.
We agreed to table the marriage question until later.

The magazine I interned for in Paris offered
me a Junior Fashion Editor position in their Los Angeles office,
but I turned it down. I know it sounds foolish, but there were
things going on in my personal life that made me re-think what I
wanted to do with my life.

I had
come into a large sum of money, and decided to open a boutique. I
love what I do. It
’
s
taken me a while to gain the respect of the local fashion
community, but it was well worth the hard work, and a huge step of
faith.

Alex
Simone is a place for women with curves, or real women. We stock
most sizes, but we are known as the go to store for curvy women who
love designer clothes. We
’
re not a plus size store per se, but in Southern
California, a store that stocks anything over a size twelve is
considered plus size. We just make it a point to offer designer
clothing for women in a larger range of sizes. Curves, sensuality,
and confidence are our business, and we know how to handle all
three.

Back to
me and Jonathan. Things were going great with us. We had just
gotten back together again. I say again, because, we broke up a
lot. I know I sound like a fool, but I
’
m not. I had put a lot of time into that
relationship and I wasn
’
t about to just walk away just because he had a little slip
while we were apart. If only it had been a slip.